PM backs parents' choice on schools

Monday 8 January 2007 00:01 BST

Tony Blair fully supports the right of parents to choose which school they send their children to, Downing Street said.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman refused to comment directly on the decision by Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly to send one of her children to a £15,000-a-year private school for pupils with learning difficulties.

However, he made clear that Mr Blair did not see the holding of ministerial office as a bar to parents sending their children to schools outside the state system.

"What the Prime Minister supports absolutely is the right of parents to make choices about their children's education which are best suited to their children's needs irrespective of who their parents are or what job they do," the spokesman said.

He said Mr Blair had always believed in a "mix of provision" in education.

"For some pupils inclusion in the mainstream system will be the answer. For other pupils that will not be the answer," the spokesman said.

Mr Blair himself has previously been embroiled in controversy over his children's education.

He was criticised in 1995 for sending his elder son, Euan, to the grant-maintained Catholic London Oratory school in Fulham, south west London.

Tories accused the then leader of the Opposition of taking advantage of freedom of choice in education for his own children and denying it to others.

But Conservative leader David Cameron on Monday defended Mrs Kelly's right to decide, saying he did not think she was being hypocritical. He told GMTV it was a "personal matter", adding that the minister was "a parent first, but we're all parents first rather than politicians" and "must do the right thing" for children.